Because Zimmerman was acquitted, state law requires Florida to pay all his legal costs, minus the biggest one: the fee that goes to his lawyers.

That includes the cost of expert witnesses, travel, depositions, photocopies, even that animated 3-D video that defense attorneys showed jurors during closing argument that depicts Trayvon punching Zimmerman.

Defense attorney Mark O’Mara said Monday that he would soon prepare a motion, asking Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson to authorize the payments.

That motion, he said, “is in the works.”

***

George Zimmerman, the killer of Trayvon Martin who was found not guilty of second-degree murder last month, just can’t stop doing things that thrust him back into the spotlight. There was the “look, I’m a hero” rescue of a family in an overturned vehicle. Then there was the “You didn’t see my name?” speeding ticket in Texas. But Zimmerman’s latest attention-getter defies comprehension.

***

Like it or not, according to Florida Statute 939.06 Zimmerman is entitled to be reimbursed. George Zimmerman was found “not guilty” by a jury of his peers. If the state of Florida does not like it and tries to block the motion, maybe next time they should provide more sound legal judgement and not be forced into the prosecution of an individual for political reasons. Maybe this will be a lesson to them to actually put on a case based upon fact, rather than emotion. Or maybe next time they will actually present a case.

The Sentinel reported that Zimmerman’s request would be based on a Florida law that says a defendant who’s acquitted isn’t liable for costs associated with his or her case. It must be approved by a judge or a clerk.

O’Mara told the newspaper he expects the Judicial Administrative Commission to throw up roadblocks.

“That’s where the fight is,” said O’Mara, who told the paper he’s been paid nothing by Zimmerman but has kept billing records.

If I had a father, he’d look like Delbert Belton, the 88-year-old World War II veteran beaten to death in Spokane, Wash.

And yes, if I had a son, he’d look like the white teenager who police say drove the getaway car in the Oklahoma killing.

These are all true statements if we identify ourselves and each other only by the color of our skin, which, increasingly seems to be the case — including our own president.

Barack Obama helped lead the way when he identified himself with Trayvon Martin, shot by George Zimmerman in the neighborhood-watch catastrophe with which all are familiar. Stepping out from his usual duties of drawing meaningless red lines in the Syrian sand, the president splashed red paint across the American landscape:

“If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

In so saying, he essentially gave permission for all to identify themselves by race with the victim or the accused. How sad as we mark the 50th anniversary of the march Martin Luther King Jr. led on Washington that even the president resorts to judging not by the content of one’s character but by the color of his skin — the antithesis of the great dream King articulated with those words.

***

Not content with murdering an innocent black teenager, getting away with it, and having racist gun nuts fund his defense, George Zimmerman plans to ask the state of Florida to cover $200,000 to $300,000 of his legal expenses. His attorney told the Orlando Sentinel on Monday that they will sending the state the tab because under state law, once acquitted, the defendant is entitled to have their legal expenses paid for.

***

***

Zimmerman has enjoyed riding a wave of fame brought on by his murderous act. According to The Washington Post, “Zimmerman used a Kel-Tech 9-mm pistol to shoot Martin on Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford, Fla. So, what did the former neighborhood watch volunteer do this weekend? According to TMZ, he went to the gun manufacturer’s Cocoa, Fla., headquarters to apparently shop for a rifle. Not only that, Zimmerman got a tour of the facility by the owner’s son and posed for at least one smiley-faced picture with an employee. The visit set off widespread head-scratching and curse-filled questioning. But the reaction from Shawn Vincent, the spokesman of the attorney who kept him from rotting behind bars, was the best. We certainly would not have advised him to go to the factory that made the gun that he used to shoot Trayvon Martin through the heart. That was not part of our public relations plan…”

I bet demanding another $200-300,000.00 from the taxpayers wasn’t a part of their public relations plan, either. Conservatives have embraced Zimmerman, and no doubt they’ll find a way to justify sticking the taxpayers with a million dollars plus bill caused by Zimmerman’s decision to follow Trayvon Martin.

***

The Orlando Sentinel has put out a story about George Zimmerman’s recent visit to the gun-factory that made the gun he used to shoot Trayvon Martin, titled ” George Zimmerman’s gun-factory visit ‘inappropriate,’ says rep.” The misleading headline states that Zimmerman’s representative believed the visit was “inappropriate,” which was not what the representative actually said. The Sentinel quotes the Reuters report of what was really said by the representative to Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara. “We understand how George visiting the factory that produces the gun used to shoot Trayvon Martin is seen as inappropriate,” Shawn Vincent, spokesman for Zimmerman’s lawyer Mark O’Mara, told Reuters on Friday.-Orlando Sentinel

Obama has tended to be cautious on the subject, but he has been more forthcoming of late, especially after the killing of Martin and subsequent acquittal of Zimmerman.

In the immediate aftermath of the killing, Obama noted, “if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” Last month, after the verdict, he went one step further in that identification saying, “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago” and offering a number of instances of racial stereotyping and prejudice that he had himself suffered as a younger man.

But even if those comments were lauded among Obama’s supporters, they were among several reasons why Herman Cain calls the president’s record on race relations “lousy.”

He added: “There were expectations that he would set the proper tone for race relations in this country. He has not done so. The things that he has been outspoken about have simply created more friction.”

***

I’m sorry, America, we’re stuck with the Zimmermans. They won’t go away. Rather than recoil from his status as the man who shot an unarmed 17-year-old, George Zimmerman is enjoying his celebrity, while Robert Zimmerman continues to collaborate with the right-wing media-entertainment complex to make his brother out to be the real victim in Sanford, Fla., last year – the victim, first, of “thuggish” Trayvon Martin, and then of civil rights leaders like the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, as well as Martin’s parents.

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the lib posters on other sites are still insisting that W started the precedence of going over congress’ head…

you and I both know the dems/lsm would never had allowed that but they are making dang sure obama can do it without any issues, they keep asking their talking heads, obama doesn’t have to ask for permission, correct?

While I agree the state should pay as per the law… 300,000 sounds absurdly high. That’s what a house costs in many places. A rate of 30,000 would seem generous. But 300,000?

I’d love to see an itemized bill for this 300,000 figure.

Karmashock on August 28, 2013 at 6:37 AM

Attorneys bill by the hour. You’re not only paying for their time, but also that of any legal aids they employ to do research. Plus fees for materials, processing fees, transport and housing for witnesses for the defense, etc.

That’s not including your own “regular” expenses, which Zimmermann had trouble dealing with due to not having a job. And having to be in what amounted to protective custody because of death threats, etc.

The expenses the state covers in event of losing a case are mainly “court costs”- that is, the expenses the court goes to to handle the case, and the expenses of the prosecution. (Salaries, lab work, evidence acquisition and securing, etc.) Put it another way, if you lose, part of any judgement against you is reimbursing the state for the cost of prosecuting you. If the state loses, they basically cannot “recover” those costs, and have to write them off.

Even without “asset confiscation”, prosecutions can be very profitable under the right circumstances.

$300K for defense costs seems like a lot. But by modern legal standards, it’s chicken feed.

And you’ve got to love the HA hypocrisy. Proudly not discussing the Duncan OK shooting because of racial tensions and then throwing up a QOTD that is all about Trayvon Martin’s death at the hand of a “white Hispanic.”

We are definitely not living the dream but not for the reasons that the racists who speak from the Lincoln Memorial this afternoon will claim.

- We are not living the dream because blacks have institutionalized their victimhood to the point that a fat angry black woman sees racism when she is told “no” when wanting to see a handbag costing more than the average annual income for most American families.

- We are not living the dream because black youth, particularly males, have somehow become alienated to the point that it is not news when blacks shoot blacks in the inner cities. This is not the fault of whites but, rather, a societal shift that has trained these individuals to value the gang culture over education and achievement.

- We are not living the dream because colleges and universities still hold blacks to a lower standard and hold quotas for them on the basis of color not accomplishment. The President would not be where he is today if he had to compete on an even playing field.

- We are not living the dream because you can’t talk about racial issues without the focus somehow being that whites are the only ones that can be racist and blacks are always the victims. To black racists, George Wallace is still in the schoolhouse door, the blood is still fresh on the Edmund Pettis Bridge, and lunch counters are still segregated.

So……. As there is reasonable and unreasonable claims made today about the significance of MLK’s speech (easily one of the best speeches ever made in America) and the March on Washington. I join those that say the dream is unrealized. But it isn’t for the reason that the black racists and liberal special interests claim. It is because we still do not have a world where content of one’s character trumps the color of one’s skin.

THESE ARE THE ATTITUDES AS TO WHY THERE WILL NEVER BE RACIAL EQUALITY IN AMERICA UNTIL BLACKS STOP PRETENDING THEY ARE PERPETUAL VICTIMS OF RACISM AND ABUSE BY WHITES.

Conservatives have embraced Zimmerman, and no doubt they’ll find a way to justify sticking the taxpayers with a million dollars plus bill caused by Zimmerman’s decision to follow Trayvon Martin.

Except that isn’t what happened. Zimmerman was not following when he was attacked by a worthless street thug who got what he deserved.

Not content with murdering an innocent black teenager, getting away with it, and having racist gun nuts fund his defense, George Zimmerman plans to ask the state of Florida to cover $200,000 to $300,000 of his legal expenses.

He got away with nothing. In fact, the state of Florida had to Nifong Zimmerman to even press charges since the Grand Jury would not indict. The trial was held and Zimmerman was found not guilty. And Trayvon Martin was a black street thug who could hardly be decscribed as innocent no matter how unfortunate the manner in which he died.

George Zimmerman, the killer of Trayvon Martin who was found not guilty of second-degree murder last month, just can’t stop doing things that thrust him back into the spotlight. There was the “look, I’m a hero” rescue of a family in an overturned vehicle. Then there was the “You didn’t see my name?” speeding ticket in Texas. But Zimmerman’s latest attention-getter defies comprehension.

Like it or not, George Zimmerman is a victim of media bias and the race industry. NBC deliberately doctored the 911 tapes to make it sound like Zimmerman had something against blacks. The media not only picked up on that narrative but continuously showed pictures of a Trayvon Martin from years ago and not the thug in a hoodie that got shot while buying the ingredients necessary to make a hip hop culture drug. The media is clearly still not being honest about the events of that night in Florida or the reality of the killing in Duncan OK or the almost daily killing of blacks by other blacks in America’s cities.

While I agree the state should pay as per the law… 300,000 sounds absurdly high.

Karmashock on August 28, 2013 at 6:37 AM

The legal defense bill, in actual billable hours, was upwards of $1M. Asking for one-third of that as reimbursement for having to call expert witnesses to rebut the state’s witnesses doesn’t seem unreasonable at all. Although the lawyers admitted there was no way the state was going to be paying that much.

Frankly, I think the biggest payout is yet to come as the defamation lawsuits against NBC and other outlets start. The night the verdict was read, my first thought was that NBC’s lawyers were probably on the phone trying to cut a deal. Because what they did was so reprehensible the only hope they had was “justification” for their actions by a guilty verdict.

I see liberals are “outraged” over Zimmerman getting reimbursed for his legal bills. Well, that is the law, just because you did not get your race based outcome too bad.
Justice is supposed to be blind.

What part of the facts of a guy (NO MATTER HIS COLOR) sitting on your chest beating your head into the sidewalk does not warrent using deadly force to stop the assault.

One of Shorty’s murderers and his father are claiming that the thug was buying Crack from the 88 year old WW II Vet.

MLK would have backhanded both of them.

Racism is hereditary.

kingsjester on August 28, 2013 at 7:28 AM

I’m not seeing racism in this case. I see young black males preying on an 88-year-old. When they were beating him to death with flashlights, I bet they didn’t count on national media exposure.

What I do see is the same sort of racial problems that other parts of the country. Young black males alienated from society for a multitude of reasons including- no strong black male role models in their life, a high probability of being a HS drop out, apt to be part of a gang, on the road to having children by multiple women (the 17-year-old in Duncan was already a baby daddy), etc. These are the statistical probabilities.

In short, the problems are well known. But we ignore them and pretend that Trayvon Martin was coming home from Bible Study, the Duncan Three had spent the day in the library, and the Spokane Two were merely asking directions when something got out of hand. And this is only the black-on-white incidents that the media has focused on. Every day in Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, and other cities there are black-on-black murders that are deemed to common to be newsworthy.

Imagine how much further race relations might be if society stopped denying what black males have become and started addressing how to make sure there that the norm is black males that contribute to society instead being just another Trayvon Martin, Chancey Luna, or Kenan Adams-Rinard?

Wouldn’t it be nice if a large number of blacks began coming out and demanding there be peace. That the black on white violence stop. That all the racism stop and stress how we need to live together in peace. That we are one nation.

Imagine how far that could go if someone like even, say Oprah or other celebrities or common people just began speaking out for unity.

What would truly be in the spirit of MLK? One more day of shaking your fist at white America or, instead, extending your hand to walk together and live the dream?

George Zimmerman has some amazing superpowers according to Salon and other links highlighted last night. How did he flip over that SUV to stage the saving of the family just to thrust himself back in the news?

If George Zimmerman hadn’t stood his ground and defended himself, right now he’d be as dead as Christopher Lane and Delbert Belton. You know it. I know it. The race-baiting peddlers quoted above know it but dare not say it.

Fascinating. Zimmerman is alive because he defended himself. Oh, what to do if you’re liberal facing that fact? Boldly state that Belton is dead because he defended himself. What balls.

The character assassination and vilification of a guy who defended himself when violently attacked and assaulted continues. The Orwellian spin and rewrite of the history and of facts about what happened continues. The truth about Trayvon Martin continues to be ignored or buried.

The Sandford PD police chief and the Sandford DA still lost their jobs over this. And the lead investigating detective with over 25 years on the force is now back to being patrolman.

Justice, American style, to appease the black grievance industry and feed anti-gun crowd. The attempted railroading by the state of a man who who did nothing wrong and who legally defended himself violently attacked and assaulted.

The Sandford PD and DA were right when they refused to charge and prosecute Zimmerman. There should have never been a trial. Zimmerman should have never been charged.

Whatever compensation Zimmerman can extract from the FL state government that tried to railroad him and put him in prison for life he is entitled to. However he can make some money to live on is fine with me provided it is legal.

He can never live a normal life again. He must make sure no on knows where he lives. He will always be looking over his shoulder watching for some racially motivated nut who wants to kill him as payback for St Trayvon.

As for the “wisdom” of that trip to a gun factory, what difference does it make? He will be hated and criticized by the same people no matter what he does. What more can they do to him? Why should he give a sh!t what new bad publicity he is smeared with?

He tried to help a family in a car accident and he was criticized for it. He can do no right in the eyes of his enemies.

He took a long drive to Texas and was criticized for it, for carrying a firearm when there are people all over the country who would like to kill him.

The guy has every right to do whatever he wants to do. He is a free man in an allegedly free country.

And he still has the right to carry a firearm and protect himself and his family.

Idiot
The stupid taxpayers in Florida owe Zimmerman hundreds of millions of dollars for electing race baiting politicians who tried for years to take away his constitutional freedom to defend himself from a vicious black mugger

First off, Zimmerman did not shoot Martin for publicity. Nor, as it was proven, did he do it in spite or anger or racism. He did it to save his own life as he was being beaten by yet ANOTHER young black thug- as in the hundreds of examples we’ve witnessed before and after his trial. The only difference being before the black thugs did it for fun and profit “because they can” motive. Now they do it because their President greenlighted them.

Second, Zimmerman was found not guilty. He will never get his life back because of the illegal and improper prosecution both in the media and in the court. He gets something out of this. He was abused and wronged…. !!!

Third, if he wants to be the regular guy. You know, save four lives, get a speeding ticket, visit a company why can’t he? What makes him radioactive? That he killed the young black thug trying to kill him instead of dying like the old man in the truck, or the two kids in the truck, or the baseball player jogging down the road or the man set on fire?

I’m guessing any one of them would gratefully trade places with GZ.

Ask yourself this question. If the roles were reversed and random beatings and killing of blacks were perpetrated by whites- for fun and profit- and those whites were arrested and prosecuted, would Al and Jesse be silent? As Jesse said “the system worked”.

Grow up. Sadly, we’ve crossed the Rubicon here and the race relations will continue to tank, as Obama continues to lead his people down a very dark road.

Under the category, things that make you stupider in Chicago (yeah, I know, stupider is not proper English, whatevs):

Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued an impassioned plea Tuesday to parents upset about school closings and budget cuts: Don’t protest by keeping your kids home from school.

“You have a disagreement [about school closings]? The court has spoken to that. You don’t like something? There’s another way to speak of it. Do not take the kids out of school and harm them and their future,” Emanuel said.

“When I say all of us have a responsibility so our children can live up to their potential, I mean all of us. If you have a political disagreement, deal with it in a political way. Do not use the kids that way. They don’t have a day to waste when it comes to their education.”

Community activists from across the city have called for a boycott of Chicago Public Schools on Wednesday to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.

On the flip side, they ARE keeping them out of Chicago Public Schools, so how much damage will really be done? And, the teachers don’t seem to have a problem with striking and keeping the kids out of school, “harming their future”… Oh, nevermind.

Time to turn that on its head. Trayvon Martin, assaulter of George Zimmerman, was killed when Zimmerman defended himself.
Think I’ll insert that into any statement I make when I use Martin’s (assaulter of George Zimmerman) name.